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Journalists commemorated, murders still unsolved
Published: 15 December, 2009, 20:24
Edited: 20 December, 2009, 17:06
TAGS: Anniversary, Crime, Russia, Hate crimes, Politkovskaya, Human rights, Mass media, Prime Time Russia
December 15 in Russia is a mourning day for journalists murdered for doing their job – spreading information. The date has been remembered in the country since 1991, to highlight the dangers of working in the industry.
In Moscow, the Journalists' Union opened its doors for relatives and friends to speak out about their grief.
Three years ago on Lesnaya street in central Moscow, Anna Politkovskaya was brutally murdered at her doorstep as she was returning home from work. She was a journalist, a human rights activist, and famous for her opposition to the Chechen conflict. She wrote a number of articles on the conflict that later were published as books.
Until now, three years later, no one has been sentenced for her murder and the investigation of her murder and the trial continues in the country’s Supreme Court. Unfortunately, statistics show that only 2% of the murders of journalists in Russia are solved – that’s opposed to 80% of the murders of people of other professions which are solved in the country.
The main goal of this annual day of mourning in the Central House of Journalists is to stop the figures from turning into statistics, and to recall every story of every murdered journalist in the country, to continue independent investigations and to bring together family members of journalist who died while on duty.
After Politkovskaya was murdered, her name became known to many journalist around the world, as did the name of Paul Khlebnikov, former publisher of Forbes magazine, who was killed five years ago along with the names of Vladislav Listyev and Dmitry Kholodov.
However, most journalists in Russia who perished never have their stories published and never are remembered.
There are many children of murdered Russian journalists who, despite the tragedy that happened in their family, still chose to follow in the steps of their parents and become journalists, speak the truth and, perhaps, understand a little better what happened to their parents.
Many of them still don't know who's to blame for the loss of their loved ones. And as life shows, there are few chances that the mysteries which surround most of the journalists' deaths will ever be solved.
John Crowfoot from the International Federation of Journalists has been closely following the dangers and struggles of reporting in Russia for many years. He believes the problem is that investigators do not feel protected doing their job in Russia.
“If investigators in the courts were allowed to do their jobs, and there are a lot of good people in all the parts of the system, then you might begin to get somewhere, you might begin to get to the people who committed murders," Crowfoot told RT. "Especially in those cases where journalists were killed because of the work they were doing, you would get behind the killers of the people who ordered the killing.”
15.12.2009, 19:48
Armed deserter commits suicide after killing comrade-in-armsA 19-year-old serviceman has shot dead a guard before turning the gun on himself near the central Russian city of Saratov in Central Russia. |
15.12.2009, 20:32
Historama, December 15A loss to Russian aviation, a breakthrough in space exploration and a brand new calendar – these are the events that make December 15th meaningful for Russian history through the ages. |
Unfortunately, the 2% clear-up rate has gone widely into circulation and stopping its use and repetition is a tough job. Now Russia Today repeats it. [Please use this revised and more tactful version of my submission, if you will. JC] Always check, and double-check, your sources - that is a basic rule of research and, one hopes, of all good journalism. For this quotation is meaningless as stated. Do you, or the source, mean for last year's murders, OR for the last five years murders? For all murders of journalists in Russia since Putin came to power, or since the Soviet Union collapsed? Do you even mean murdered? Killed could cover the significantly large number of reporters, photographers and cameramen who have died in crossfire situations in Chechnya since 1994 but also in the October 1993 events in Moscow. A real discussion of this problem can be found in "Partial Justice", the IFJ inquiry into deaths and disappearances of journalists in Russia since 1993.The Politkovskaya murder case, now coming up for retrial, is a key test of the barrier which has, until now, prevented prosecution of those who - in the handful of serious cases - planned, paid for and ordered the killing of a particular editor or correspondent. Total impunity, failure to prosecute (or even to investigate seriously?) is still prevalent in some areas (North Caucasus, including Chechnya, and, rather more shockingly, in St Petersburg) but the problem now is more one of partial justice. This means, as far as journalists are concerned, a failure to investigate possible professional motives for their killing, and pursue all those involved. As for the 83% statistic this only applies to the last few years and reflects the definition of "solved" or "cleared-up" used by the Russian police, not the actual level of successful prosecutions. Those, according to RF Supreme Court statistics now available, run at around around 70-75% for murders and attempted murder from 2006 onwards.